LJUBLJANA UNDER THE STARS
At 5PM, the mayor will turn on the lights at Ljubljana's main square, you should go early because it will be very crowdy, told us Eva, the young blond lady who had brought us the keys of the apartment in which we had chosen to stay in Ljubljana. This was the last stop before going home to our own apartment in Paris three days later. We had walked from the train station, fifteen minutes away on the periphery of the capital city of Slovenia. Initially, the town felt modern and anonymous in the way that concrete block-housing and industrial premises can be on the outskirts of any city.
Along the street leading us straight to the Zmajzski Most, the bridge of the dragon, which has become the emblem of Ljubljana, the houses had morphed from concrete into older buildings. Two bronze dragons are posted on each sides of the stone bridge crossing the Ljubljanica which encircles the old city built around the castle that stands on a hilltop.
The central market was empty at the time we got there but we could see things gearing up in the wooden huts of the Christmas market. One stall sold bear ham and sausage as well as wild boar and deer ones. We were discovering the old city under a Christmas celebration cloak. This part of town is pedestrian and spotless, busy with restaurants and shops. It was a surprise to find such a picturesque collection of old but well-maintained buildings from the 18th or 19th century.
We walked past the yellow concrete painted Cathedral with its green cupolas and as we reached the Robbov fountain (Robbov Vodnjak), a man with a deer mask, calling himself Mr Deer, was playing a tiny guitar to earn money from passersby. He stayed there for hours despite the cold, like the few other street musicians we saw later, one accordionist playing Slovene folk music and another one playing the cimbalom, a sort of piano without keyboard that is played like a xylophone by hitting the strings with cotton padded sticks. That guy could play jazz and classical tunes with an amazing dexterity.
We arrived at the address of our flat located on the fourth floor of a building with an open stone staircase in the courtyard. The apartment was dubbed "romantic" by Eva to explain the dim lighting and carefully selected furniture and accessories. Definitely, the presence of a zebra skin as living room carpet and beech tree trunks as columns in the bedroom made it special.
We followed the advice of our host and went to the imminent opening of the Christmas decorations by the mayor. It was freezing and the sky was already dark. We stood on a new bridge with many others, enjoying the cold as much as our neighbours. Slowly but surely, children were asked to sing a song, the national anthem was played and the mayor made a short speech. Finally the whole city was illuminated in a beautiful way. LED stars were suspended in the air, among many other shapes. The main square next to the three stone bridges, built one next to the other, had a truly starry sky.
We hadn't expected so many tourists to visit Ljubljana, but obviously the town has been added to the agenda of many tour groups during summer but also for its Christmas market lasting for the whole of December.
We walked past the yellow concrete painted Cathedral with its green cupolas and as we reached the Robbov fountain (Robbov Vodnjak), a man with a deer mask, calling himself Mr Deer, was playing a tiny guitar to earn money from passersby. He stayed there for hours despite the cold, like the few other street musicians we saw later, one accordionist playing Slovene folk music and another one playing the cimbalom, a sort of piano without keyboard that is played like a xylophone by hitting the strings with cotton padded sticks. That guy could play jazz and classical tunes with an amazing dexterity.
We arrived at the address of our flat located on the fourth floor of a building with an open stone staircase in the courtyard. The apartment was dubbed "romantic" by Eva to explain the dim lighting and carefully selected furniture and accessories. Definitely, the presence of a zebra skin as living room carpet and beech tree trunks as columns in the bedroom made it special.
We followed the advice of our host and went to the imminent opening of the Christmas decorations by the mayor. It was freezing and the sky was already dark. We stood on a new bridge with many others, enjoying the cold as much as our neighbours. Slowly but surely, children were asked to sing a song, the national anthem was played and the mayor made a short speech. Finally the whole city was illuminated in a beautiful way. LED stars were suspended in the air, among many other shapes. The main square next to the three stone bridges, built one next to the other, had a truly starry sky.
We hadn't expected so many tourists to visit Ljubljana, but obviously the town has been added to the agenda of many tour groups during summer but also for its Christmas market lasting for the whole of December.
Like in Zagreb, café terraces were prepared to receive guests outside in the cold, offering gaz lamps to get a bit of warmth and blankets or sheep fur to sit on. Mulled wine and sausages (kobasa) were the classic things to eat and drink outside. Ljubljana has made a step-forward in helping tourists to have a good experience by suggesting the best spots for "instagrammable" selfies together with the proper hashtags such as #selfieexperience... a good digital strategy to attract new visitors and in line with Slovenia's inclination for new digital technologies.
The next morning, a sunny one, a group of Hare Khrishna devotees danced and chanted in front of the pink facade of the Franciscan Church of Prešernov square. Some had biscuits in baskets that they distributed to the people they talked with. We went to the market which buzzed at that time of the day and bought some vegetables for lunch. We spotted an elderly lady that wore an unusual hat adorned with fir and ivy branches. She looked like a benevolent fairy. After that we walked up to the castle which has been remodelled and expanded several times over the centuries. The latest renovation has turned it into an entertainment center, with a jazz club, a gourmet restaurant, small museums, a photo gallery, a banquet hall. It has a dedicated office to organise weddings and of course the view over the whole area down to the Triglav mountain range, whose top was white with snow, was a strong plus for having one's wedding party there.
Beyond the immediate center around the castle's hill, the town has expanded with Art Nouveau buildings, then steel and glass high-rises. The Republic square is a Yugoslavian era example of what was built in the name of the People, who might probably have thought, when they saw it, that they would have had a different idea of what they had wished had been built in their name. Two severe but large concrete blocks topped by wood and glass upper floors were built at the one end of a large esplanade, an inverted triangular-shaped bronze sculpture to evoke what the regime was expecting from model citizens was in the shadow of large trees and at the other end of the square a cubic building with a bronze portal displaying naked people, children, women and men. It conveyed the image of a gender-equal society. The one thing that struck me in the parks was the large size of the trees. They must have contemplated a lot human history but somehow have managed to sail through without too much damage. I keep a similar memory from the other cities we had previously visited, be it Zagreb, Belgrade or Sarajevo.
The old town's shops were all ready to welcome Christmas tourism. We spotted one that sold exclusively dogs biscuits and sweets. But of course luxury food products could be found severally. Underwear, female underwear, were displayed in shop windows as a favourite Christmas present. There was one lit-up billboards on which Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) carried hers.
Ljubljana has a cultural centre called Kino Šiška which is used as a concert venue. We went there twice in three days as a way to re-acquaint ourselves with an urban lifestyle which we had kind of put aside during our seven months walking journey. First, we saw Marko Louis, a Germany-born Serbian musician and singer, who played his own multi-faceted compositions that incorporated traditional balkan horn sections, oriental percussion and soul infused ballads within the same song. The second concert was with Keziah Jones and his new band (drums and bass). He did very well with his guitars, he had to change them a few times because of broken strings. Sadly his voice was broken too.
Epilogue
The time of boarding the train to Stuttgart was drawing near. This time it was undoubtedly the end of our journey. We looked at the landscape running in front of our eyes across Austria and Germany: green fields, blue rivers, snowy peaks, foggy valleys... It was dark when we changed trains in Stuttgart and still cold. In a way the cold made the idea that our journey was over sweeter. Going home, even though our home would be chilly for a while until the heater made it cozy, was just like going to the next stop in our journey across Europe.
The whole journey of the walk had really come to an end after a "decompression" stage visiting the capitals of former Yugoslavia and reflecting on the history of this turbulent area. The seven months spent away from home always in transit had induced a sort of detachment from the place we were, as long as there was food and a cozy enough place to stay. The idea of moving on was no longer something special, it had become a habit.
We were relaxed about coming home, besides we didn't have any real constraints. We carried pretty much the same luggage we had left with, albeit a few swaps, a lot of memories from the journey itself and a very peaceful mind that made us ready for whatever would come next.
Images:
1/ starry sky in Ljubljana
2/ a deer guitar player (Mr Deer)
3/ Carrie carries hers
4/ Ljubljana and the Triglav on the horizon
5/ the Cathedral
6/ Epilogue, from the train to home
1/ starry sky in Ljubljana
2/ a deer guitar player (Mr Deer)
3/ Carrie carries hers
4/ Ljubljana and the Triglav on the horizon
5/ the Cathedral
6/ Epilogue, from the train to home
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| starry sky in Ljubljana |
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| a deer guitar player (Mr Deer) |
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| Carrie carries hers |
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| Ljubljana and the Triglav on the horizon |
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| the Cathedral |
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| Epilogue, from the train to home |
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